USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume IV > Part 3
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While still surrounded by the plenty of home, it was not easy for men who had never known a real hardship to satisfy themselves with pork and beans, with hard beds and stern routine; but they did not flinch. Sometimes in the efforts of the new officers to secure strict discipline, the display of authority was rather superfluous; as once, when some men were ailing slightly, the whole regiment was called out in companies, and the surgeon, a bottle of some nauseous mix- ture in one hand and a big spoon in the other, passed along the line pouring a liberal spoonful into the mouth of each man, sick or well !
But the inhabitants of the cities, and indeed of the whole State, atoned for all mishaps and deficiencies by their lavish generosity. Nothing was too good for the "boys in blue". Did one of them appear on the street, he was besought to accept what he liked, from pie to pistols; and friends and general visitors poured into the camps, and strove to hide their aching hearts behind good cheer of all kinds. Old
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ladies knitted stockings, little girls made pincushions and rosettes, and everything to eat or wear was brought for the soldier's comfort.
Could a man have taken to the field all that was pressed on him by his friends, he would have been exhausted before he could take aim once. The undoubted inventive genius of the State displayed itself at once with astonishing results in the way of portable writing desks, cooking utensils, toilet- cases, rubber blankets, water-filters, and the like, all of which were urged on the volunteers. A selection of these, with Bible, photograph album, extra shoes, stockings and cloth- ing, embroidered slippers, and dressing gowns, with an assort- ment of good literature, and the inevitable accoutrements, made the packs loaded on the untoughened backs weigh from 125 to 150 pounds !
They were besought to employ all kinds of hygienic prac- tices from changing their stockings when they stopped march- ing to "having their food always well-cooked"! The day came when some of them were thankful for the soft side of a mud-puddle and the warm blanket of a snow drift on which to lay their weary bodies ; and to eat their bit of salt pork raw or hastily broiled on a ramrod.
On May 10, amid the cheers of friendly throngs, the First marched to the wharf, to take the "Bienville", which bore them to Washington by the hitherto closed Potomac, Captain Ward's Potomac flotilla not being active till the 16th. The President and his cabinet met them on the river, and must have been rejoiced to see such a reinforcement of the slender garrison. It was the first regiment to enter the capital in complete preparation for war, with tents, baggage-train, 50,000 rounds of ammunition, and rations and forage for twenty days. "Colonel Tyler was prepared not only for a bat-
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tle but for a campaign." It had more transportation than all the troops in Washington combined; and on the day after its arrival, its teams were borrowed by the Government. No wonder that General Scott exclaimed, "Thank God, we have one regiment ready to take the field".
The Second Regiment, under Colonel Alfred H. Terry, followed the next day by the same route. It was fortunate in having officers well trained in the State militia; and the New Haven Grays, the Mansfield Guards of Middletown, and the National Guard of Birmingham, which were included in it, had long been favorite militia companies. The Third went two weeks later, and all three were brigaded under Brigadier- General Tyler, who had received his promotion from the colonelcy of the First on the day. of sailing from New Haven. Much of the efficiency of the Connecticut troops throughout the war was due to the thorough drill and the high ideal of the true soldier, inculcated by that able, indefatigable, and conscientious officer. He set a standard of strict discipline and devotion to duty, which made Connecticut troops favor- ites with commanders from Bull Run to Appomattox.
The Legislature which convened at Hartford on the Ist of May was confronted by new and portentous business. All inexperienced in the needs of armies and navies, these men had to arrange a sure supply for the streams which were to flow from the State toward the national support. For a short time party lines were almost erased; indeed, in town elections in New Haven and Norwich, a union ticket had been made and carried, and the noble message of the Governor met a hearty response. His recommendation to immediately organ- ize eight or ten thousand volunteers to be ready for service was speedily accepted, and all his acts in raising the three- months troops were ratified and confirmed. Appropriations
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were made for the extra pay of the soldiers already departed, and the treasurer was empowered to issue six per cent. coupon bonds to the value of $2,000,000 for military expenses.
The bounty before mentioned was six dollars a month for the wife, and two dollars for each child, not exceeding two, under fourteen. It was paid quarterly, even after the death of the soldier till after the term of enlistment expired. So well was the work of this Legislature done that it was not repealed, but was only extended during the war.
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CHAPTER II
THE CALL TO ARMS
R ELIEVED in a measure from the excitement of sending off five thousand volunteers in five weeks, Connecticut turned her gaze on the scene of conflict. She beheld a confederacy compact, united, and confident, and present- ing, on frontier and coast, a discouraging extent of boundary to be guarded. On either side of the dividing line, the points for most effectual attack were to be found only by solving the bloody problems of the future.
The situation demanded both dash and delay, promptness and prudence. The nation clamored for an advance-the President was accused of hesitation. The history of the first two years of the war is a record of disasters and successes which followed the various attempts to read the riddle of uniting caution and courage, discretion and daring. The advocates of the "on to Richmond" policy disapproved of the "anaconda" plan of action ; and at no time did the general public, with all its generosity and enthusiasm, appreciate the necessity of circumspection in military matters.
Colonel Ellsworth, the first martyr of the war, who lost his life while hauling down a rebel flag in Alexandria, was a grandson of Connecticut, his father having removed from Hartford to Michigan; and his successor in command of the famous Zouaves was Noah L. Farnham, of Haddam.
It was on June 9 that General Butler's rashness led his men into the skirmish at Big Bethel. As a conflict, it seemed scarcely worthy of mention after the nation had become accustomed to the stupendous later engagements; but its name will always be fraught with sad import because there fell Theodore Winthrop, the flower of Connecticut birth and breeding, a man who had shown himself to be the inheritor of the Dwights, the Woolseys, the Edwardses, the Winthrops.
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Through his father, Francis Winthrop, he was a descendant of Governor Winthrop, and on his mother's side could count six college presidents as relatives. Born in New Haven in 1828, he was graduated at Yale in 1848 with many honors, being the first to take the Clark scholarship. The pride of his class, he was always beloved and admired by his friends, who looked for great things in his career. He was a brilliant writer, and yet so shy of literary fame that his most import- ant works are posthumous. He lived in the world of books, but being an athlete and a traveler, he could bring the mental and physical outfit of a soldier to the camp.
After many wanderings, he had tried to settle down to practice law in New York, had there become a member of the famous Seventh Regiment, and had hailed the opportunity of going with it to the defense of Washington. His breezy, witty leters from their quarters in the Capitol and on the shores of the Potomac, to the Atlantic Monthly, give a price- less picture of the happy hopefulness of the volunteers of that period, and show how a polished man of the world could accommodate himself to camp life as if it were a holiday.
In the words of his friend, George William Curtis,-"For one moment that brave inspiring form is plainly visible to his whole country, rapt and calm, standing upon the log nearest the enemy's battery, the mark of their sharpshooters, the admiration of their leaders: waving his sword, cheering his fellow-soldiers with his bugle voice of victory,-young, brave, beautiful: for one moment erect and glowing in the whirl of battle; the next, falling forward toward the foe, dead, but triumphant". His death sent a thrill of horror through the North. Crowds assembled to honor his funeral cortège in New York; his dirges sounded in New Haven
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through the leafy streets which had known him throughout his life, and there, in the Grove Street Cemetery, he sleeps.
In the long line of heroes, the best that the country had, who died in defence of the Union, Connecticut lost another noble officer, Captain James Harmon Ward; a Hartford man, who had been a midshipman on the historic Constitu- tion, had seen service in the Mediterranean, had become an authority in naval matters through his "Manual of Naval Tactics" and his work on Naval Ordnance and Gunnery, had urged the establishment of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and had there filled a professor's chair. When he saw brother officers deserting their posts, he stood firm, and was one of the first to whom the Washington government turned for advice on naval affairs. The Potomac flotilla, which he organized, was the first Union war-fleet, and under his ener- getic direction inspired the rebels with dread, and cleared a safe passage by water to the capital. After silencing the batteries at Acquia Creek, he commanded the Freeborn in an attack on Mathias Point. Brave to a fault, he saw a gun- ner disabled, rushed to take his place, and in a moment fell, shot through the breast. He too was brought home, and re- ceived the highest honors of a soldier's funeral in Hartford. The nation could ill afford to lose so experienced and valua- ble an officer as Ward.
To the Border States all turned anxious eyes in 1861, for it was justly perceived that their behavior might turn the course of events at this critical moment. The U. S. Arsenal at St. Louis was in charge of Captain Nathaniel Lyon, a native of Eastford, Connecticut, who was graduated from West Point in 1841, and had served with distinction in Mexico and Cali- fornia. The Union owed Missouri to the promptness of Lyon, who with the intuition of genius, seemed to know just
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when to be impetuous. So rapid and well directed were his dashing attacks that he gave the Governor, Claiborne Jack- son, no time to complete his plans for taking the State out of the Union.
Jackson had gathered twelve hundred Confederate troops in a camp of instruction near St. Louis, but Lyon pounced on them, taking them all prisoners in thirty minutes. Such success frightened the Secretary of War, Mr. Cameron, and he superseded Captain Lyon by Harney, only to reinstate him after a week of failure, this time making him Brigadier-Gen- eral. Governor Jackson called on all "loyal Missourians" to "rally to the flag of their State," and it has been wittily said that Gen. Lyon was the first to respond; for the very next day he started for the capital, Jefferson City, with three thousand hastily collected troops, drove Jackson from the city, and, pursuing, defeated him at Boonesville.
The wavering loyalty of Missouri was stiffened by this energetic action, and the State was saved. Not only rapid but indefatigable, Lyon waited only to put his hasty force in marching order to set forth for Springfield. Two deep rivers lay in his way, but notwithstanding, he marched two hundred miles in eleven days, accomplishing the last fifty miles in the incredible time of twenty-four hours. General Frémont was placed in command of the Union army in Mis- souri, and failed, for reasons much discussed since, to rein- force Lyon in his peril. Price and Mccullough gathered a large army, and threatened Lyon's daily shrinking force. The longed-for help, which might have saved thousands of lives in after years, did not come; outnumbered but not dismayed, he planned a night attack on the enemy's camp at Wilson's Creek, and there, with five thousand against their twenty-
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three thousand, fought one of the fiercest and most skilfully managed battles of the war.
During six long hours, his men returned again and again to the charge, driving the enemy before them each time, although gradually losing numbers. Lyon's horse was killed, and he was wounded three times. With the cry, "Come on, my brave men ! I will lead you!" he led the last charge, and fell where the hero seeks to fall. No one else could rouse his panting soldiers to such valor as he; and with him perished the hope of victory. Retreat was necessary; and in the con- fusion, Lyon's body was left on the field. Mrs. John S. Phelps was brave enough to cause it to be secreted in a cellar until it could be buried at night; and she aided his friends when they came to carry him away. In each city on the home- ward route, he lay in state,-St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadel- phia, New York, Hartford; and at last in his own home, Eastford, thousands of mourners thronged to pay him the last tribute.
General Lyon was the first general killed in the war ; and so pure and disinterested was his patriotism, so unquestioned his courage, so blameless his character, that he has gone into the little band of knights without fear and without reproach. Said Dr. Woodward :- "He placed no value upon repose, on comfort, or even life, when the land that he loved with all the devotion of his generous soul demanded their sacrifice." And from no less an authority than General Sherman came this tribute :- "He was the first man in this country that seized the whole question, and took the initiative, and deter- mined to strike a blow and not wait for the blow to be struck. That he did not succeed at Wilson's Creek was no fault of his, but the result of causes which he could not control. The act itself was as pure and godlike as any that ever characterized
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a soldier on the field of battle. I wish he could have lived; for he possessed many of those qualities which were needed in the first two or three years of the war, and his death imposed on the nation a penalty numbered by thousands on thousands of lives, and millions and millions of dollars".
Thus was Connecticut called to lament four gifted and intrepid officers in the very outbreak of the conflict. Their loss was irreparable, but the blood of those heroes of the summer of 1861 was not shed in vain. The story of their sublime deaths fired thousands all over the North to go into the army and emulate their virtues.
In July, the first three Connecticut regiments held a dan- gerous position at Falls Church, eight miles in advance of any other part of the Army of the Potomac. When General Tyler was warned from the War Office that he was in peril, he replied that they were only holding a point that must be held, and that he would be responsible for the watchfulness of his men. When McDowell's army marched to defeat at Bull Run, General Daniel Tyler commanded the First Divi- sion; and since those regiments, with the Second Maine, under Colonel Keyes of the Regular Army, composed the First Brigade of that Division, the Connecticut troops led the advance. They held Blackburn's Ford for two days. Per- haps had that success been promptly followed up, we should not attach its present meaning to the name of Bull Run.
In the great battle on Sunday, General Tyler fired the first gun at six in the morning; and so cool and unfaltering were the men of his division, so well were they gaining their points, that he was utterly astonished to receive the order to retreat. Fortunately, the Connecticut brigade was not so completely caught in the whirlwind of the rout as were some other regi- ments which were undoubtedly equally brave; and by well-
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directed firing, it was able to keep off the enemy. Marching to Cub Run Bridge, which was by this time a mass of disor- ganized fugitives, the men forded the stream, and by their firm ranks protected the panic-stricken men until the rebel pursuers withdrew, admitting in their own reports that at that point they were thrown into confusion.
This service was widely acknowledged and appreciated. Said Stedman in the New York W'orld, "The Connecticut brigade was the last to leave the field at Bull Run, and by hard fighting, had to defend itself and to protect our scat- tered thousands for several miles of the retreat". To quote the official report : "They occupied their old camping-grounds after the battle, and being ordered to Fort Corcoran, made their appearance there with six prisoners (many more had escaped), two pieces of abandoned artillery, one caisson, the implements of the sappers and miners, twenty horses, all their own baggage and camp equipage, and the tents and equipage of two Ohio regiments, the Second New York, and a com- pany of cavalry, with their baggage wagons and property, which had been deserted. This was done during a continuous downpour of rain, and without any food for thirty-six hours".
Naturally, General Tyler was proud of his men. To him, according to contemporaries, was Connecticut supremely indebted for the reputation she achieved during the war. By jealousy in the War Department, he was kept from active service and promotion for the greater part of the war; but in the hearts of his men lingered the feeling expressed by Gen- eral Hawley when he said, "General Daniel Tyler is the fath- er of us all".
Special mention for gallantry was made of Colonel Terry, Colonel Chatfield, with their comrade, Colonel Jameson of the Maine regiment, Colonel Speidal, Captains Hawley and
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Chapman, Adjutant Theodore C. Bacon, and Lieutenants Albert W. Drake, Charles Walter, and Alexander Ely. Col- onel Terry called especial attention to the "devotion of Dr. Douglas and Dr. Bacon [Francis] to the wounded while un- der the hottest fire of artillery". The Rev. Hiram Eddy of Winsted, the Second's noble chaplain, was taken prisoner on the field with the wounded. These prisoners from the three- months regiments served their time most painfully for many months, sometimes a year, in Southern prisons.
The useful lesson of Bull Run taught the nation to aban- don any idea of a speedy peace, and to prepare for a long war. On the day after the battle, President Lincoln was authorized by Congress to call out five hundred thousand troops, for three years of the war. In response to that call, men in the three months regiments, almost without exception, re-enlisted for three years as soon as they returned to their homes. Of these, five hundred became commissioned officers, and among them were three major-generals and five briga- dier-generals.
The Fourth and Fifth Regiments had already enlisted for three years. It had been on this condition that the President had accepted three regiments instead of one from Connecticut at the first call, and they were already on duty. The Fourth behaved so well in camp at Hagerstown that the citizens peti- tioned to have it stay with them. Similar compliments were often won by Connecticut soldiers stationed in towns, even in the Old Dominion. Still, the defeat at Bull Run encouraged the opposition party in the State to loud advocacy of the peace policy, of which ex-Governor Thomas H. Seymour was an avowed champion.
In various parts of the State, especially in Fairfield and Litchfield Counties, there were peace meetings, and white
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flags were raised. The white flag was generally quickly lowered in response to urgent invitations from an angry crowd, but the sympathizers with the seceded States were never entirely cowed. Governor Buckingham proclaimed the laws about treasonable language; and Morse, the editor of the Bridgeport Farmer, being induced to leave rather sud- denly, transferred his editorial chair to the more congenial atmosphere of Augusta, Georgia.
Those who had hoped that such opposition would chill patriotic fervor were greatly disappointed; for never was enlisting so brisk as during the time of the peace-orators. The Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Regiments filled up their ranks very quickly during those summer days of 1861; and the Tenth and Eleventh were sent off in the autumn, as well as the Twelfth and the Thirteenth.
Governor Buckingham offered the first and second posi- tions in the Seventh to the officers who had become favorites in the Second and First, Colonel Alfred H. Terry, and Cap- tain Joseph R. Hawley.
Colonel Terry, although living in New Haven, was born in Hartford. He belonged to a fine old colonial family, and through the Rev. Thomas Hooker, William Wadsworth, and John Talcott, was descended from three founders of Hart- ford; through the Rev. James Pierpont and the Rev. Noa- diah Russell, from two founders of Yale. Among his ances- tors was General Nathaniel Terry, one of the foremost men
of Hartford in his time. Alfred Howe Terry, his great- grandson, was a graduate of the Yale Law School, and prac- ticed his profession in New Haven; but he had always had a strong taste for military life, and had been for years a member of the New Haven Grays. In 1861 he went to the front as the colonel of the 2d Connecticut Militia; and at
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Bull Run, as has been said, won especial mention for his "gallantry and good conduct". Joseph R. Hawley was also of a Connecticut family. Having been graduated from Ham- ilton College in 1847, he became a law-partner of John Hooker in Hartford, in 1850, and then took up editorial work. In his office the Republican party was formed in 1856. Both of these men were to bear many honors in the coming years.
The Sixth and Seventh were to win the name of "fighting regiments". They were often brigaded together during the war, as were the Eighth and Eleventh, and the Twelfth and Thirteenth, and these pairs were sometimes spoken of as "sister regiments". In the autumn of 1861, the Sixth and Seventh left Fortress Monroe to take part in Sherman's expedition to South Carolina. Having narrowly escaped destruction in a fearful storm, they were privileged, after the brilliant naval battle at Port Royal, to take possession of the forts; so that the Seventh's Connecticut flag was the first to wave over South Carolina soil.
The occupation by Du Pont of Tybee Island, at the mouth of the Savannah, followed and completed this timely victory at Port Royal, and gave us throughout the war the control of Beaufort and the best harbors of South Carolina, as well as the river and the Sea Islands. The enforcement of the blockade was a serious matter at all periods of the war, and especially in the early years, when our small squadrons were hardly equal to the gigantic task thrust suddenly on them. The naval service attracted thousands of men from the State, and in fact, owing perhaps to her extensive seaboard, she has always sent more to that branch of the service than any other State of her population.
Almost all the Connecticut troops were fortunate in having
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officers who drilled them thoroughly, and were exacting in matters of neatness and form; so that the reputation of those troops became deservedly high through the army. Dur- ing the long intervals of comparative leisure while in camp, many of the regiments used their varied talents to such effect that their camps won unstinted praise from all beholders. Tidy cabins, sometimes roofed with the tents, were ranged on orderly streets, and neatness reigned without and within. In most of the regiments, the regular religious meetings held by the chaplains were eagerly attended, denominations being often swept away by a feeling of common brotherhood; and vicious habits were frowned on by the majority. Many regi- ments possessed small libraries, and enlivened the winter evenings by glee clubs, debates, and literary societies. Well was it that a few such hours could be secured to steady the men for the dark days before them.
To prevent any possibility of neglect of the troops while passing through New York, the Sons of Connecticut, therein residing, organized themselves for systematic action. Robert H. McCurdy was the President, W. H. Gilman the treasurer, and Charles Gould the secretary. They presented a very handsome flag to the Eighth Connecticut, and provided rooms where substantial meals were prepared for the men while in New York, and anything which was needed for their comfort was secured. Throughout the war, this thoughtful hospitality was at the service of every Connecticut soldier who chose to avail himself of it.
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